4 ms·

> Why purchase access to a 3rd party AI reading engine or a knowledge graph when you can just hire hundreds of postdocs in Hyderabad to parse papers into JSON?

> Why purchase access to a 3rd party AI reading engine or a knowledge graph when you can just hire hundreds of postdocs in Hyderabad to parse papers into JSON? (at a $6,000 yearly salary) I really like jobs people think AI can do in theory but can't really do them effectively irl. Where do I get a part-time gig like that if I think I am capable of reviewing and creating summary of non-STEM papers? Except for homeworks and assignments of course.

Mezzie 5y ago
Yeah, you can't outsource that to Hyderabad. You'd need to know subject knowledge + very specific English and possibly other languages depending on the field (not saying Indians can't do this, but I've studied enough languages to know that doing high level/academic work in a non-native language is hell even when the language is pitched to students). And you'd have to know enough about the process and authors to know what makes papers relevant. The metadata matters as much as the data.
- anyfactor 5y ago
  All good points. But you do have to recognize the tradeoff. Has AI come so far that it could perform better than industry specific human intelligence? You have to consider that maybe some Indian researchers could review the papers as they are doing that job as part time gig. You have to test out both solution. And as these jobs are treated as contracts there is no significant commitment for choosing one over the other. We can't be certain if one method is better than the other without trying both of them out without prejudice. I, for one am agnostic about either choice. Because AI is overhyped yet it has spillover benefits as a marketing-sales point but offshore human intelligence has a bad rep but could be effective if you have proper documentation, supervision and review framework.
  - Mezzie 5y ago
    Oh yeah, I was just thinking currently. In five to ten years once AI/ML/etc. trickle out of tech/theory spaces and starts to be combined with subject expertise, I think we'll see really interesting things. The other matter is that an Indian who could review papers that well would also cost more than 6k/year and would not be easily replaceable, which eliminates the main benefit of outsourcing for a company trying to operate in such a way in 2021. In 2030? I'd say the odds are if somebody in Hyderabad can do that then they can start their OWN company rather than bother with us at all. Honestly, given India's role in pharmaceutical manufacture, I'd be shocked if things like that don't start popping up.

Mezzie 5y ago

Yeah, you can't outsource that to Hyderabad. You'd need to know subject knowledge + very specific English and possibly other languages depending on the field (not saying Indians can't do this, but I've studied enough languages to know that doing high level/academic work in a non-native language is hell even when the language is pitched to students). And you'd have to know enough about the process and authors to know what makes papers relevant. The metadata matters as much as the data.

anyfactor 5y ago
All good points. But you do have to recognize the tradeoff. Has AI come so far that it could perform better than industry specific human intelligence? You have to consider that maybe some Indian researchers could review the papers as they are doing that job as part time gig. You have to test out both solution. And as these jobs are treated as contracts there is no significant commitment for choosing one over the other. We can't be certain if one method is better than the other without trying both of them out without prejudice. I, for one am agnostic about either choice. Because AI is overhyped yet it has spillover benefits as a marketing-sales point but offshore human intelligence has a bad rep but could be effective if you have proper documentation, supervision and review framework.
- Mezzie 5y ago
  Oh yeah, I was just thinking currently. In five to ten years once AI/ML/etc. trickle out of tech/theory spaces and starts to be combined with subject expertise, I think we'll see really interesting things. The other matter is that an Indian who could review papers that well would also cost more than 6k/year and would not be easily replaceable, which eliminates the main benefit of outsourcing for a company trying to operate in such a way in 2021. In 2030? I'd say the odds are if somebody in Hyderabad can do that then they can start their OWN company rather than bother with us at all. Honestly, given India's role in pharmaceutical manufacture, I'd be shocked if things like that don't start popping up.